The present invention relates to mobile communication systems, and more particularly to techniques for selectively disabling one or more functions/capabilities in mobile user equipment.
Mobile communication systems, such as cellular communication systems, allow mobile user equipment (UE) to communicate wirelessly by establishing a wireless (e.g., radio) link between the UE and one of a number of base stations (BS) which are geographically distributed throughout a service area. Mobility is provided by means of protocols that enable the UE to be handed off from a first BS to another as it moves from the coverage area of the first BS to the coverage area of the other BS.
The various base stations are connected (e.g., by means of wireless and/or wired links) to a public land mobile network (PLMN), which provides the necessary infrastructure for servicing calls. The PLMN also typically has connections to public switched telephone networks (PSTNs) to enable calls to be routed to wireline communication devices not associated with the PLMN.
In order to enable interoperability between equipment designed and made by different manufacturers, a number of mobile communications standards have been adhered to in the past and present, and new ones, such as standards developed and promulgated by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), continue to evolve. The 3GPP is a collaboration agreement made between a number of telecommunications standards bodies. The 3GPP is responsible for maintenance and development of the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) Technical Specifications and Technical Reports including evolved radio access technologies such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). The 3GPP is also producing globally applicable Technical Specifications and Technical Reports for a 3rd Generation Mobile System based on evolved GSM core networks and the radio access technologies that they support (e.g., Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) both Frequency Division duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) modes).
Although 3GPP terminology is used herein to provide a well-known point of reference to the reader, it will be understood that the various principals and aspects described here are not limited to systems designed in accordance with 3GPP specifications, but rather are applicable in any similar type of mobile communications system.
A problem that can be encountered in a mobile communications system is that of misbehaving User Equipment (UE). A misbehaving UE is one that contains a malicious or malformed application that may act to repeatedly request services from and/or connections to the network. This type of activity by the UE degrades the system because of both allocation of radio resources and wasting of network signaling processing. The misbehaving application may be downloaded to the UE by the user through various means, for example e-mail, SMS and Push services, and (exceptionally) fail to be detected and disabled by application layer preventative measures.
It is foreseen that the near future will bring an increase in the number of applications downloaded to the terminals. This will certainly increase the possibility of malicious or malformed applications being downloaded and installed onto a user's UE, thereby making the UE a misbehaving one.
Selective Disabling of UE Capabilities (SDoUE) is a feature approved by 3GPP which allows operators to selectively disable services on ‘misbehaving’ UEs when necessary. Other communications standards may approve a comparable feature.
To date, there is no mechanism specified for selectively disabling UE capabilities.